Morning Download: Google Becomes Just Another Company

Editor

Good morning. Google is on all-out PR blitz to convince everyone that it’s new-and-improved, but the only thing that’s new is that it’s looking over its shoulder at Apple and Microsoft.

Torsten Silz/AP Photo

We’re reminded over and over that technology doesn’t replace people, which means no IT transformation can possibly succeed without an accompanying change in culture. People also remain the weakest link in the IT security framework; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says a utility worker could bring down the New York City power grid by clicking on a link in an email attachment.

Accenture CIO Frank Modruson, who led a huge videoconferencing implementation that paid big dividends, tells CIO Journal’s Rachael King that “in these kind of journeys, people are always the hardest thing.” In this case, the challenge was getting high-level executives to give up their annual London confab for more efficient video meetings. The tangible payoff: a $200,000 capitalizable expense versus a $500,000 annual cash expenditure. More important, the executives learned they could get just as much done, and meet in smaller groups throughout the year, improving their ability to collaborate and innovate.

Google’s search revamp shows fear. The WSJ’s Amir Efrati reports on Google’s improved search engine capabilities, which includes features like more direct “answers,” rather than the classic series of “blue links” on a search result page. Efrati has a separate interview with Google engineer Danny Hillis explaining how Google is trying to make its search engine do a better job of understanding what words really mean. As Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan notes, Google has already been providing some of these features for years, but is stirring the PR pot in reaction to the perceived threat from Apple’s Siri, which uses voice commands, and sending some searches to competing search or recommendation engines like Yelp or Wolfram Alpha. What strikes us most is that Google is now showing the same weaknesses and paranoia as any other large technology company feeling a competitor — real or imagined — breathing down its neck.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY

One dumb click can bring down the New York power grid. U.S. Department of Homeland Security showed Senators how the New York City electrical grid could be shut down by a power company employee opening an e-mail attachment. The agency is trying to convince a skeptical Congress to pass legislation providing the government more regulatory oversight over computer security used by companies tied to the infrastructure, The New York Times reports. The DHS also recently listed 86 attacks on systems that controlling infrastructure between October and February.

Why humans make bad passwords. Two computer scientists from Cambridge University have debunked a widespread belief that passwords composed of several words are infinitely harder to crack than a plain old password. The scientists were able to crack 8,000 “passphrases” housed in a defunct Amazon database, using nothing more than a dictionary of movie titles and other proper nouns. “Our results suggest that users aren’t able to choose phrases made of completely random words, but are influenced by the probability of a phrase occurring in natural language,” they wrote.

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Once again, it’s going to be the year of the iPad — err, tablet. Tablet shipments will increase 54% in 2012, to a total of 106.1 million, predicts market research firm IDC, buoyed by the lower-priced Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. It’s also safe to say that the new iPad has something to do with the rosy tablet forecast. Pre-orders for the device have already sold out. The Journal’s Walt Mossberg today reviews the iPad, writing that it has “the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device.” He heaps praise on the optional 4G LTE cellular technology where he reached speeds of over 17 megabits per second, faster than most home networks. Yes, he liked it, but said not enough to rush out and buy it if you’re happy with the one you’ve got.

March Madness Driving IT “Linsane.” According to a recent survey by Braun Research, the month-long NCAA basketball tournament drives IT managers “Linsane.” Forty-two percent of the 500 IT pros polled said that workers watching streaming videos have slowed down their networks, InfoWorld reports. For 34 percent, their network experienced the equivalent of a full court press, actually shutting down at times. Over half said they have made efforts to block or ban the streaming of non-work content. Not helping matters, the Journal’s Jason Gay in his “The 23 Rules for Winning March Madness“: “Do NOT skip work to watch the NCAA tournament. If your company didn’t want you to watch the NCAA tournament at work, they would never have given you a computer, pom-poms and a frozen margarita machine under your desk.”

There’s jobs (and billions in savings) in the cloud. Eleven cloud computing companies created 80,000 jobs in the United States in 2010, according to a study [PDF] commissioned by venture capital firm Sand Hill Group. By 2017, those firms could create a total of 475,000 jobs in the U.S. and overseas. And that’s not all. The VC firm says that businesses that invest in cloud technology will collectively save $625 billion over five years.

EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

Goldman Sachs tempest grows. Former Goldman Sachs VP Greg Smith’s scathing op-ed on Goldman’s culture in Wednesday’s New York Times draws a rebuttal from another former VP, Matt Levine, who writes on CNN.com that it’s “a mistake to read Smith’s piece as a scandalous revelation of the decline of Wall Street culture.” He says there will probably be more departures from Goldman not “because they’re sick of making money off of clients. More likely, they’re leaving because they’re sick of not making as much money off of clients as they used to.”

SEC gets tough on secondary market. The SEC brought charges against two money managers, alleging they earned secret commissions from the sale of Facebook shares, the WSJ reports in this A1 story. “Regulators are concerned that the markets are murky and can fall short of the types of disclosures that typically accompany public-market investments.”

J&J CEO reaps huge payout. Retiring Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon is looking at a $143 million payout after he retires, the WSJ reports. His pension’s value vaults him into the top 10% of CEOs of S&P 500 companies. But he won’t be able to start collecting until he gives up the chairman title.

Loans are scarce in euro zone. Companies in struggling euro-zone countries aren’t seeing much benefit to the ECB’s cash injections. Spanish lender Banca Cívica’s CFO, Roberto Rey, tells the WSJ that demand for credit is falling as banks charge more for the risk they are taking. Both Portugal and Spain are seeing a big jump in bankruptcies – along with unemployment.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's fourth annual Millennial Survey reveals the business activities and outcomes members of Generation Y would prioritize if they held leadership positions. In highlighting millennials' priorities, the survey results draw attention to this generation's values and the themes large enterprises should speak to if they wish to attract and retain members of this rising workforce.